Jose Bello

You can do whatever you want. It does say anything about your responsabilities. Only, perhpas, to help keeping the country free...

seniority system in legislature bodies. it all about pleasing your committee chair not to work for your voters.

Redistricting reform... it key.

what website? do you have an independent address?

Marygg

A country where people can disagree without demonizing each other. And where public education can teach kids to think.

Everything, beginning with the suffocating role of big money in our national and state legislatures.

The airwaves, the broadcast bands are public goods which are routinely abused by those who have managed through political pull to secure the licenses.

My pie in the sky plan:

1. Limit campaigning to six months.
2. Force TV and cable producers to provide broadcast prime time slots for all parties which have received at least 5% of the vote. The political ads should be reasonably priced-- way below the commercial level.

3. Have a semi-permanent-bi-partisan independent body investigate and enforce the rules.
4.Fine very heavily and/or revoke the licenses of those who fail to comply.

Art

Ha! Ha! It means That Bryan could have Gary Null on his program to debate whom ever he might choose.

Null

MONEY!!! Where else con you buy a mayorship of NYC if you have enough MONEY.

Vote OUT ALL incumbents in congress.

Next time

MikeInBrklyn

Nothing!

I find the reference that the US is a "free country", just another means by which ueber nationalistic types advance an us vs. them agenda. To a large degree this sentiment has much to do with the need of some in the country to convince themselves of US exceptionalism. Though there are many other countries that provide their citizens equal or greater freedoms than the US, myopic nationalist find comfort in their false belief that none can be compared with the US. Oh well, "It's A Free Country" and everyone's entitled to believe whatever they choose, no?.

The institutions of politics.
Everyone (Legislator, The Judiciary, The Media, etc) are all catering to special interests and foregoing addressing the concerns of constituents.

- Strong campaign reform laws that eliminates the need for politicians to raise unseemly amounts of money to serve.
- return the media to a role of questioning and informing the public through unbiased, fact-based reporting.
- make voting mandatory. This would go a long way to making this country "free".

A direct contrast between, and willingness to point out, what is fact and what is fiction in the political discourse.

Joel S.

A robust First Amendment and our Constitutional protections of the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

(1) Our widespread acceptance of bad faith in so many of our political actors: we now expect -- and, when it suits us, cheer on -- "spin," the disregard of distortions and lies about opposing opinions. Sen. Moynihan's brilliant dictum that everyone is entitled to his opinion but not to his own facts, is in danger of becoming quaint.
(2) Untrammeled personhood granted to corporations, recently bolstered by the Supreme Court.
(3) The ability, and requirement, to spend profligately on political campaigns.

The only thing I know to do is to support the outstanding evenhandedness and fact-checking by public radio.

Maybe more later...

Eric Score

I can live my life without interference from government, religion, business or influential groups as long as I meet certain guidelines of taxation, adhere to laws of local and fed and do not step on thevrights of bother peopler.

Two glaring things

Politics of money-money is spent to garner votes not to fix things or aid our populous.

Politics of rhetoric-crucial in session time is spent on sound bytes vs. Planning and action.
We can denounce a mosque being erected for a month while we watch jobs continually leave us.

Control spending through balanced budgeting and eliminating discretionary spending.

Make congress a twelve month session.

TG, upstate/downstate

To me it is a play ground term as was stated in the introduction. This never has been a free country in any sense of the word. It was started by wealth men and has always favored them however enlightened by their times and study they were. Someone said freer, more freedoms and more mobility than in many other places. A totally free country would be anarchy. I don't think even these so called T-bagger, neo-libertarians would want this? De Tocqueville was right in so many ways. Our representative democracy with checks and balances including a check on the tyranny of the majority by and enlightened educated philosophical class has deteriorated. Not as hoped by bringing the general populace up to the level of "wisdom" and enlightened discourse but by bringing the level of discourse down in our representative bodies.
For starters though it means to me, in ideal, that you have the elucidated and natural rights of speech and action unless they trample on the same rights of other members of our society. We don't agree on what the rights are or on how to regulate the concept in law. This is where sincere and respectful discourse should enter in with the underlying belief in compromise mutual respect. Forces in media have led us astray, the science of advertising and influence.

One major problems is that corporations are not people and do not deserve all the same rights as an individuals. Our political system is perverted and distorted by the many monied interests influencing our legislators.
The second is the use of the science of influence so that people respond only reflexively vs. consideration, contemplation and constructive engagement.
Use of demonizing language code word language is out of control. If we continue as we are there may be a new civil war or willing partition of our country... Personally I see the religious right adopted by the Republican party (Goldwater, Regan, Bush), and funded by big corporations and mega wealthy individuals as responsible for this. Not that there is no responsibility or culpability on the far left as well, just SO much more from the right... I am guilty of actually growing to hate the figures of the right during the bush administration for their apparent disregard for our democracy, civil discourse and openness in govt.

First kill all the CEO and CFOs, -and their lawyers and stooges. I jest, paraphrasing Shakespeare of course. But what we do need is to eviscerate their power over our system. Get big money completely out of politics. No donations of more than about $100 from ANYbody, -or corporation. Shorten our election campaigns by law, have election day as a national holiday. Give common people the sense that they actually have a voice as long as it is respectful of others rights. Ban political advertisements in electronic media.
In addition full openness and disclosure of ALL funds used in ANY campaign local or national.
A political culture of intolerance for lies and untruths and for polarizing divisiveness, but of mutual respect for each other, our land/earth, and our belief in a system that could conserve our heritage and manage the future for the benefit of the largest number of our people, progressing respectfully together to sustain the ideals on which the country was founded. Hold our politicians accountable for lies, distruths and corruption personally and legally. How do we do this? Who knows, sounds like idealistic crap to me. Education about our system(civics), re-emphasis on student government in our education system? Nothing succeeds like success. Maybe pick one issue that almost everyone believes in or wants to accomplish and focus on that, get it done and see what happens. Is there such a common goal? Lets find out!!

Help identify a common goal that a wide majority of our citizens want for our country and ourselves. Actively search for that Common Ground that I have heard Brian talk about...

Floridaze1

That no one should tell me what to do as long as I am doing no harm to anyone else. We are all born with an inherrant sense of right and wrong and only when we are forced to subscribe to religious beliefs do we start to muddy the waters. Once we loose ouselves from the bonds of religious balderdash do we truly gain our freedom.

The insertion of a test for one's religiosity into politics has subverted the process by forcing people to compromise their non beliefs. In addition, the lack of campaign finance reform has completely undermined the ability of anyone to run for elected office. Finally, the recent decision by the supremely ignorant court that treats corporations as persons and allows them to pour huge sums of lucre into the selection process is ludicrous.

Ban the discussion or insertion of religious views during the campaigns for political office. Rescind the supremely ignorant court's decision of treating coprporations as persons. They are more equivalent to the Star Trek enemy known as 'The Borg' not in any way shape or form a person. Finally, restrict campaign contributions to $50.00 per person ((including corporations)parents could give money for each child)). This would equal approximately $1,500,0000,000.00 which should be more than enough to keep the campaign economy afloat.

Someone need to ask the tea party memebers to deatil what they mean by "Limited Government". They are constantly touting that their main goal is to reduce the size of government, but they never state how exactly they would do this. Also, they need to be reminded that Medicare and Social Security are entitlements and are ahuge chunk of the Federal Budget.

Will Galison

Among other things, a country where our information is not censored and manipulated by media with a hidden agenda.

Without knowledge of what's going on, we are free only to be sheep.

My primary concern is the widespread corruption in the courts, a cancer that infects the other branches of government as well.

WNYC's role:

I have written a dozen letters to WNYC, trying to inform them of this crucial issue, but they will not even acknowledge receipt of those letters. In fact, WNYC has not done a single story on judicial corruption in over eight years, except when it occurs in a faraway land.

I asked them to cover or report on the Senate Hearings on judicial corruption that were held a few blocks from their office:

http://www.youtube.com/nysenateuncut#p/u/0/knQLll5hmjs

Recently I informed them of the murder of my friend Sunny Sheu, who reported death threats from a Supreme court Judge before being killed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Tr3QChAy4Y

The police are covering up the murder by contradicting the findings of the Dr. who autopsied Sunny.

They have also banned me from posting on the WNYC Facebook site, and will not tell me why.

Politics will always be broken to some extent, but our sole salvation is a responsible and independent media. Tragically, WNYC has gone to the dark side in this respect.

Ultimately the media is the institution responsible for alerting the people when government is out of control, so that hey can fix it through the democratic process.

For this to occur, media must be free of outside influences which could create conflicts of interest.

In the case of WNYC, they are largely funded by "white shoe" law firms and their counsels such as Irwin Schneiderman form Cahill Gordon & Reindel.

In the case of WNYC, the station must stop censoring its members, and simply risk losing funding by standing up to the interests of their benefactors when these interests conflict with truthful, comprehensive reporting.

First of all, I think that WNYC should not censor my respectful. informative posts from its Facebook page, and that they should meet with me and my fellow victims of judicial corruption.

Otherwise, my dear friends, all this "freedom" talk is a lot of hot air.

I can be reached at wgalison@aol.com

J.W.

Nothing, actually.

I think it much more apt to call the United States a "free-er" or "more free" country rather than a free country. Freedom of speech, religion and freedom of the press, which we tend to think of when we think of freedom, are all regulated by the government, and if you take the time to look, you can find many examples of laws, acts, and supreme court cases that limit these freedoms rather than extend them, all through out our entire history and up to the present day. Moreover, while most of us think we inherently understand the concept of "freedom", it really isn't all that easy to define in words in a concise manner, and you should try to do it sometime. Just something to ponder :)

What isn't? Ha, just kidding, or ... maybe not? You tell me, lol

Transparency times a million.

When I look at a politician, this is what I'd like to see:

The money trail is right there in front of us (and its easy to understand), the voting record's right there in front of us (and why they voted that way is easy to understand), even what they did that day is right there in front of us, and its presented in a clear and simple manner.

Yes: moderate, moderate, moderate.

There is no more fertile breeding ground for trolls and flame wars than online political discussions.

So good luck!

carolita

It means, to me, that we are free to live according to our constitution, and free to question our government.

The 2-party system has become rotten -- to many politicians are afraid to lose support, so they BS us into nowhere. Nothing gets done, no one wins. Except the rich, again and again.

Simple majority. Bring it back. And one vote=one vote -- no more states more important than others in national elections. That's ridiculous. Popular vote. And let the supreme court decide when a popular win (such as prop 8) is still unconstitutional, as is its job.

Good luck! Maybe I'll think of something as it progresses. I'll pipe up then.

Hazel Feldman

Freedom of choice widely defined
Free press
Religious freedom
Political freedom - with restrictions - not anyone can be president, mayor, governor, etc.
Freedoms always work best with financial comfort.
The poor, ill, minimally educated all have far fewer freedoms.

Courage and integrity are almost invisible. The need to be accepted and get along with everyone impedes those in power from strongly standing for anything and being fearless. I'd love the president to state "This is what I want. You'll follow my directions. I am President.

In most homes a parent will tell a child "you'll do it because I said so." That's it. Everything in life does not require a vote or full agreement. A boss rarely asks his/her employee what she thinks or feels about anything.

Lead with confidence, grace and when necessary with force. Take a stand for what is right for the majority and end the notion of trying to please everyone.

Future leader must display maturity, intelligence, and flexibility. Compromise can be overrated.

I'm not sure, but I'll think about it. What I am sure of is that not each and every issue and topic needs two or more points of view during an interview. As long as issues are fairly and throughly covered overtime. It's refreshing at time to listen to one individual simply offer his/her thoughts without a debate.

rickpett

You can burn Korans in Gainesville

fnsgreen

Freedom does not mean NO regulating, freedom means SELF-regulating. To be free to speak, I have the right to decide where and what I wish to say. I am given the RESPONSIBILITY to evaluate what needs to be said and make a JUDGEMENT choice on what to say. If enough people are irresponsible or make poor judgements, that freedom will have to be taken away - usually with broad consensus. This is a free country, we are given many responsibilities, but we are loosing some freedoms every decade by consensus. It's our duty to be responsible with our freedoms and to teach others the same.

There is more and more a lack of responsibility to act as representatives and govern. We elect these representatives who's greater concern is to win an argument then to lead a country. WE ELECT representatives so that WE CAN WIN AN ARGUMENT AND NOT TO LEAD. Polarization has made us loose focus.

This is the scary part of our losing our freedom. We are empowered with the freedom to elect representatives for our governance. If we (and our representatives) continue to be irresponsible and make poor choices, we will loose THAT freedom also, and it will be done BY BROAD CONSENSUS. Again, it's our duty to be responsible with our freedoms and to teach others the same.

Tom

Nothing really, it is largely an empty slogan used by the vast majority of people to justify why they should be able to have some special privilege or right at the expense of everybody else. It seems that virtually every single time I hear that blather come out of somebody's face, it is followed by why they shouldn't have to follow the rules, why they should be able despoil their property and all their neighbors' property as well. It is way of defending greed and selfishness and nothing more.

The american people (and yes, I only capitalize things that earn it). They are by and large ignorant, from top to bottom, and proud of it apparently. And I do mean top. A few weeks back I was treated to the typical evidence of this on the Diane Rehm Show out of Washington D.C., when three PhD economists professed their ignorance of the 1907 Panic and its causes. To have that claim of education and not know about the 1907 Panic just shows that most economists, and the rest of our educated elites, are idiots. And it's the same at the bottom. Most so-called christians in this "christian" country can't name 2 of the 4 Gospels, can't name 3 books of the Old Testament, 3 of the Ten Commandments, and so on. And as for teab-ggers, I listened to one woman who was all for the Constitution and getting back to it, she even had a copy in her purse. When asked if she had ever actually read the document, however, she said no, she never had, but she had it in her purse. Yeah, the same way some primitive carries around a joojoo bag to ward off evil spirits. And this type of cr-tin is supposed to participate in a complex modern democratic state? I bet virtually no one writing here could even write a thousand words on the basic history of the Constitution or the preceding document, the Articles of Confederation. In fact, I bet $1000 that many people who read this will think that the Articles of Confederation have something to do with the southern Confederacy, that's how ignorant most americans are. And that is the core problem, the people of this country are simply not fit intellectually to live in a democratic state. Sort of like turning a nuclear power plant over to a bunch of chimpanzees to run.

There is no fix. This country is in a state of terminal decline and the best that can be hoped for is when the collapse of the current rotten termite infested edifice begins, it won't take the rest of the planet with it in some final death spasm of a nuclear Armageddon. as it slides into dictatorship and dissolution.

Every time somebody hurls an epitaph like "socialist" or "fascist" or says they stand for the Constitution, they have to write a 1500 word essay explaining the term in context. No more empty rhetoric, you have to actually prove you know what you are even talking about. And if they don't delete their messages, since they have nothing worth reading or paying attention to, just random ape-like grunts and growls and screeches.

Joan Mokray

In order to have freedom, there are responsibilities.

There's no problem solving because there is no true identification of what the problem is. We just muddle around and around, dealing with symptoms. I learned long ago that if you don't identify a problem, you don't solve it. It's what I expect of our elected representatives and absolutely expected of Obama. In his books, he led me to believe that he understood root causes. He's missing that now.

Take one problem. Crowd source the description of it as a proper problem, not a symptom. Teach people how to perform this kind of process. Start with something simple. Save world hunger and endless war for when we get really good at things.

Hope there's an easy way to follow and track ideas, without having to scroll through page after page.

Judy Kurland

Unfortunately, I am quite discouraged about our "free country". Our country is free for the greedy corporations and super-wealthy to distort and ruin our country - our elections, our air, food, water, health, schools, you-name-it, they'll do it. With enough money you can do just what you wish and there are no longer any checks on them.

The money buys the politicians and the three branches of government. We need financial reform with government sponsored of candidates running on their beliefs and ideas. And we need to insure we have one person, one vote with no cheating and distortions.

Not possible. Can't be done. I wish I'd moved away long ago to another country - perhaps Canada, or Costa Rica.

not right now

Heather

Not much... because there are far too many ways in which we are not free.

The corrupt revolving door between the government and corporations, banks, and special interests. I do not feel there is any true representation, and I feel like both parties seek to control us in ever-more invasive and self-interested ways.

I believe we should get out of this wretched 2-party system. I wish people of both parties would abandon the harmful "lesser of two evils" mentality and vote for the candidates who actually vow to fix the bipartisan corruption going on, and realize that it's an equal problem on both sides of the table.

Florence

Having equality, and personal rights.

Politicials are too personal in their
approach to a "public job- a public commitment". Promises that die.
With respect to the financial meltdown, how many more writers, investigators have to say that LEHMAN was treated wrongly.
TARP funds saved BEar, Chase, AIG,and giant GOLDMAN. Funds could have saved LEHMAN. LEHMAN had assets in real estate, art, etc and that was given to BARCLAYS. Total injustice.

Have the politicians refuse reliance on their personal friends , accomplices and full disclosure.

Imvestigations of the politician's
statements, pledges, promises that not
kept.